In this first real part of the Plugin Development 101 tutorial series we look into what makes a plugin. How is a plugin different than any other .php file? How do you make WordPress recognize your code as a plugin?
A plugin in WordPress is really nothing more than a PHP file (or multiple PHP files) with a very specific piece of information included at the top of the file that has been placed in the wp-content/plugins/ folder.

There is no minimum or maximum for what a plugin can or must do. Plugins can be a single line of code, or 50,000 lines of code. Regardless of the size of a plugin, it is defined as a plugin in exactly the same way: by a piece of meta data placed in the main file.

At the top of every WordPress plugin is a comment block that contains information about the plugin:

The name of the plugin

A brief description of the plugin

The URL of the plugin’s homepage

The author of the plugin

The author’s website

The plugin version number

The meta data is always placed in a comment block, so like:

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The video container itself is there but on all the vids past the first one the vid container itself is really small and when you hit play it “media source loading has failed”. Back on my Mac everyhting is cool but iPad in Chrome and Safari same thing. iPad and apps all fully up to date.

I got this message “Warning: explode() expects parameter 2 to be string, array given in /nas/wp/www/cluster-1583/pippinsplugins/wp-content/plugins/restrict-content-pro/includes/shortcodes.php on line 27″ on those pages as well, Ive never checked out your restrict content plugin
Dont know if that or just getting my membership yesterday has anything to do with it.

I’ve tried now this way: I’ve opened all the parts of this series in new tab and let it be for a couple of minutes. Some videos are being loaded. I am on fairly slow internet connection, but I don’t have such delays on YouTube or Vimeo (I understand I can’t compare ). Just to let you know that loading is very slow.

I want to learn how to make plugins in WordPress, so I am looking forward to reading the series.I’m logged in but can not see the video’s and at the end of the article I get the message to login to see the rest.
I tried other subscriber only articles and some of them I can see just fine. I’m using FF.

It looks like I still have the same problem. I can’t play the video’s when I am logged in.
I don’t know if it has anything to do with it but the first times I changed pages on the site I got following message:
blockUI requires jQuery v1.2.3 or later! You are using v1.10.2

Hope you can find what the error is.

Pippin

August 2, 2013

Do you still see the error about needing to have an active subscription?

The BlockUI error was caused by WP 3.6 and should be resolved now (cached if not).

Filip Leemans

August 5, 2013

No, I am not asked to login or register anymore. I can see the whole articles now.
But I still can not see the video’s, just your logo when i am logged in.

Pippin

August 5, 2013

I will look into it. Sorry for the trouble.

Filip Leemans

August 6, 2013

Also for the video I am not asked to log in, so that is OK. The logo and the play icon is shown but when I click it nothing happens. Also right mouse button doesn’t do anything. I tried FF and IE.

Pippin

August 6, 2013

IT doesn’t do anything when logged in or when logged out?

Filip Leemans

August 7, 2013

I am logged in and can see the article but when I click on the play icon nothing happens.

Hey Pippin, very good info. I’m starting to learn Plugin dev and I’m glad I found your tutorials because I know all your stuff are quality!

However I seem to be having real issues with the video, just like others have stated in their comments. My internet is pretty fast, so I know that’s not the issue. I’m guessing it’s the video player you’re using. The looooong delays are ruining the whole experience and as well as your brand

I’m trying to get the videos moved over to a better system really soon, sorry for the trouble.

jaredksmith

February 17, 2014

I love your tutorial style. I’m an experienced WordPress user, but haven’t done an development. The biggest problem with most tutorials is that they forget that when starting anything new, you have no idea what is important and what is not.

The way you clearly break down everything from the beginning into simple steps and show how each thing you do changes inside WordPress, really makes things clear.